The Supreme Court has upheld a 21-month prison sentence for a Civil Guard officer stationed in Costa Teguise, Carlos Alberto Troyano Astorga, considering it proven that he kept drugs seized in various police operations. In addition, he must pay a fine of 1,350 euros and will be suspended from employment or public office for a year and a half, all as guilty of embezzlement.
The first verdict was issued last year by a popular jury and the ruling was later confirmed by the Superior Court of Justice of the Canary Islands, after rejecting an appeal by the agent. Now, the Supreme Court has dismissed his last appeal, declaring the sentence final.
"The accused, within the framework of his powers, in order to obtain an economic benefit and knowing that with said conduct he contravened the duties of fidelity inherent to his position, on April 28, 2010, seized 1.4 grams of cocaine, which he had stolen from the envelope in which the substance was found and which the accused kept as a result of the seizure of said substance on public roads, not returning it at any time," the confirmed sentence stated.
Cocaine, hashish and marijuana in his home
Along with this, the sentence recounted other episodes for which he was accused, although many of them were not proven. What was also found were 16.07 grams of hashish, 1.7 grams of marijuana and 0.5 grams of cocaine in the defendant's home, which according to the ruling "came from seizures of narcotic substances on public roads."
In his defense, the agent alleged that a corporal who testified as a witness acted motivated by a "spurious spirit", since they maintained "bad relations due to the continuous irregularities that were committed in the unit in relation to the weighing of narcotic substances and the lack of a safe to store them." He even claimed that this corporal "set him up with the substance seized" from a trafficker.
"It is not explained why the Unit kept that substance for several months and did not send it to the Government Delegation to analyze and destroy it. Nor is it explained why the captain is present at the weighing of the substance, but then he is not present at the delivery of the same," his defense argued, which alleged that "there are no guarantees" that the corporal he blames for what happened "could not have switched the envelope."
Initially he had admitted the facts
However, the Supreme Court once again rejects his arguments and, among other things, recalls that when the accused testified at the barracks, he "spontaneously" admitted to having stolen the drug. And he also did so again in the Court of Instruction, stating that he "took a certain amount" and that "it is common practice in that command to take a certain amount for lawful purposes", as well as that "the substance that was in his house is from the same" and that he "only keeps the surplus."
Later, at the trial he modified his statement, but the jury considered the one he gave during the investigation to be "more reliable and convincing." To this are added the statements made by the Civil Guard officials who reported the events in their day. In addition, the TS also rejects the allegation that the drug found in the home belonged to the defendant's girlfriend, as he alleged in the trial and in the appeals he has filed against the first ruling.
